How is it that you, a law student, were assigned to a hospital?

When I was drafted, the Army assigned me an MOS (job title) of Operating Room Specialist. I do not know exactly what criteria they used, but I suspect it had to do with education and the testing that was given to us. Some with higher education were assigned to tanks or infantry so sometimes there did not appear to be logic to these assignments..... Luck of the draw. As I hadcompleted my first year of law school, I felt I would be assigned to be a law clerk in JAG, but it was not to be.

Did you, in fact, have any medical training prior to being sent to Vietnam?

No, I did not. After Basic Training in Ft. Polk, La. I was sent to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio for Medic Training, and then to Ft. Sill in Okla. for Operating Room training. The training wasextensive.

have you been able to come to terms with what you experienced?

Yes, I was one of the lucky ones. Perhaps it was because I was a bit older than some of the soldiers and had the experience of undergraduate and law school. Perhaps it was because I was so angry at the injustices that were happening. Whatever the reason, my Vietnam experience actually strengthened me. Even to this day, it gives me the strength to fight for my clients against large insurance companies and injustices and to speak out when things are wrong. I see things differently than most others and usually do what is right in spite of the odds and consequences. Our saying was, “what are they going to do, send us to Vietnam? ”

did your returning to law school and accomplishing all that you have allow you to sort of compartmentalize that part of your life and function among society?

I have used my Vietnam experience as a foundation to make my own path and not to follow others. I also am very skeptical of what we are told by the media and often by the government, especiallywhen they try to justify military involvement. Usually, it is the same tune, different verse.

did the ones who returned with the possibility of a career help them to become more functioning?

Possibly. I think it had more to do with maturity and internal fortitude. It is not unusual for Veterans of Vietnam, and Iraq/Afghanistan to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress. It is very real and it occurs in most who have served.

How does a young man or woman who has experienced "hell" get over it?

They don’t, not ever....the lucky ones learn how to deal with it. The 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam didn’t even have that chance.

Mr. Pena (Richard), I am truly fascinated and inspired by your book/Journal about your experience in the Vietnam War. From one veteran to another I thank you for your resilience to have been able to endure the chaos in your life. Having known you for more than 20 years as an attorney with genuine integrity and character, I am amazed when reading your book that you have experienced much more than I could have imagined. I am also intrigued about your ability to quickly process what you experienced. I would like for you to discuss this ability of observing, perceiving/feeling and the process to internalize what a person has endured/experienced.

You mention that perhaps because you were older than the other service men/women, or that because of your higher education or even because of your sense that you knew that war was injustice, but I still wonder how this ability, even then, to quickly process perceptions/feelings and thought and that intestinal fortitude to reconcile that inside yourself quickly enough to remain genuine/with integrity -where did that ability come from or how did you develop that ability?

I believe that ability to process experiences and then reconcile those experiences with their own beliefs would help many people deal with their own lives.

Thank you again for having the strength to share your book/Journal with the rest of us.

RT

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Christiane CallowayAttended the University of Texas at Austin where she majored in Advertising. She is currently the Marketing Director for the Law Offices of Richard Pena and the book Last Plane Out of Saigon.